Commentary
The covenant of Allah: it is the pledge to the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, regarding Islam. Indeed, those who pledge allegiance to you are only pledging allegiance to Allah. And do not break your oaths of allegiance after confirming them, meaning after documenting them in the name of Allah. And 'confirmed' and 'emphasized' are two eloquent forms, and the original is the letter waw, and the hamzah is a substitute. A guarantor is a witness and a watcher, because the guarantor is mindful of the condition of what is guaranteed and has authority over it. And do not be like the woman who unraveled her spun thread after she had made it firm and secured it, making it into loose strands, which is the plural of 'nukth,' meaning what is unraveled from its twist. It is said that she was Rayta bint Sa'd ibn Taym, and she was foolish. She made a spindle the length of an arm and a hook like a finger and a large wheel of the same size. She and her maidservants would spin from dawn until noon, then she would command them to unravel what they had spun. You take your oaths as a means of corruption among you, meaning a source of corruption and deceit. It is as if to say: do not break your oaths, taking them as a means of corruption among you. That there may be a nation, meaning the group of Quraysh, that is more advantageous than another nation, meaning a group of believers. Indeed, Allah tests you by this, the pronoun refers to the saying: that there may be a nation, because it is in the meaning of the source, meaning: indeed, He tests you by their advantage, to see if you will adhere to the means of fulfilling the covenant of Allah and what you have contracted upon yourselves and confirmed from the oaths of allegiance to the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, or will you be deceived by the abundance of Quraysh and their wealth and strength and the fewness of the believers and their poverty and weakness? And He will certainly clarify to you a warning and caution against opposing the religion of Islam.
Explore Other Scholars on This Verse
Compare different scholarly perspectives on Surah An-Nahl verse 91